but skipping payments for other government services wouldn't be. this debate could have real consequences, as darren gersh explains. >> reporter: next month, the u.s. government will owe $38 billion in interest payments on the debt it's sold to investors here and overseas. but the u.s. government will take in about $210 billion in tax revenues in february. a vocal minority in washington now argues those figures show it is possible for the u.s. government to avoid defaulting on its debts even if the debt ceiling is not raised. >> and there is no reason for the government to default unless president obama and the democrats want us to. it's just a scare tactic to continue the spending that they don't want to address. that's why they keep saying, "oh, we're going to default. we're going to default. we're going to default." it's just not true. >> reporter: but talk like that scares many budget analysts in washington. they argue markets will see a failure by the unit ed states to pay any of its bills as a threat it could one day stop paying some or all o